Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I thank all those in attendance who have helped to ensure this debate goes ahead. I hope to secure cross-party support for the Bill. Anti-social behaviour is a major problem in communities. It is particularly endemic in working class areas owing to lower levels of employment and educational attainment and fewer amenities being available for young people who need an outlet. The effect of four years of austerity in the communities I represent is clear. Grants, supports and front-line services have been cut, leading to young people finding it harder to stay in education and training or to find productive and useful uses for their time. Community projects, community employment schemes and youth centres and projects have been cut to a point where even the most essential are struggling to survive. We have more young men with more time on their hands, less to do, fewer places to go to and less hope for their future and their control over it. Austerity has resulted in a generation of angry young men in some parts of Ireland who see no value to their lives and no purpose for them. Sinn Féin has been clear on the need to row back on this process of degeneration and abandonment of working class communities. We have been clear that austerity may meet the short-term tick box criteria of the troika, but it is damaging our communities and tears the social fabric. We are all worse off as a result of austerity, whether it hits us in our pocket, owing to the effects it has on the world in which we live. The Bill cannot solve these problems, but it would, I hope, deal with some of their side effects.

I have been aware of this issue for a long time. As a public representative for the working class areas of Finglas and Ballymun, I could not have avoided it. Going around these areas, particularly in the summer months, the problems these vehicles are causing are undeniable. They are noisy and too often used by young men with reckless abandon, which endangers their safety and that of others. I was first struck by the need for this legislation almost two years ago after attending a number of safety and policing fora meetings. I raised the issue with the Garda and others and it was apparent that there was a hole in the legislation which allowed people who used these vehicles for anti-social behaviour to sidestep gardaí in public spaces and prevent the seizure of their vehicles. Currently, if someone is misusing one of these vehicles on a public street, gardaí have the powers to deal with the issue. The vehicle can be confiscated and, depending on the severity of the infraction or the history of the vehicle and its owner, may be held or returned. This provision, when enforced, can work to discourage slowly such behaviour.

Unfortunately, however, these vehicles are not just used and misused in public streets. They are also very common in our green areas and our public parks. They bring with them all of the same anti-social problems from the street coupled with greater potential for damage to public property. These vehicles tear up soil and destroy flower beds, pathways and other amenities. On YouTube one can find videos of the all too common and very dangerous practice of using the rear wheel of a dirt bike to spin a child's merry-go-round in a playground. In many of these videos the foolish people who elect to, or unwittingly, sit on the merry-go-round fly off at great speed potentially injuring themselves greatly.

This is a very simple Bill which will give the power and the impetus for the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, in co-operation with the Minister for Justice and Equality, to lay down regulations allowing the Garda to deal with the problem of the misuse of motorised vehicles in public spaces, namely areas designated as such by local authority by-laws. This Bill will help gardaí in co-operation with local communities to deal with the growing problem of the anti-social misuse of all-terrain vehicles, ATVs. Similar vehicles have been recognised to be causing considerable damage to environmentally sensitive parts of the country with flora or fauna which must be protected. This was dealt with in legislation and though some will break the law, the powers to deal with them act as a significant demotivating factor. Our public parks are important to providing access for our communities to wildlife, leisure activities, a place to relax, exercise and come together as communities. They deserve to be protected and we deserve to have them protected from anti-social behaviour.

Many of the areas I encountered on the edges of Finglas in one of my own areas, Dunsoghly, where the old Dunsink tip head was, residents have been kept up all night as a result of this. In Tolka Valley there is a brand new park which cost millions of euro and these motorbikes and other vehicles are flying up and down these parks. This was brought up at the joint policing committees and the safety fora. I dealt with all the senior gardaí, who told me they could not seize these vehicles as a result of an anomaly in the law. That anomaly exists. There are rules in place for mountainous areas but none for our public parks and spaces. I accept that this Bill may have problems and may require work but I ask that the Government allow it to go forward to be fully debated, developed and amended if necessary.

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